conceptual virtualmin question

Virtualmin
1

i’m looking to implement virtualmin in my virtual hosting environment. i have a few questions (any probably will ask for somethings that just aren’t possible) before i begin getting it sorted out into a test environment.

i’m looking for:
[ul]
[li]2 seperate nameservers (primary, slave) to be managed (used) by all virtualmin servers and host all virtualmin domains dns services.[/li]
[li]the ability to add “pre-packaged” virtual hosting servers (virtualmin servers) relatively quickly that will tie into the existing dns servers and to my “virtual hosting” cluster. (to provide pop3/smtp/webmail, http, sqldbs, av/spam checking,etc… to the domains hosted on that server)[/li]
[li]the ability to manage all of my virtualmin servers (updates, global configuration settings) via a single interface (brings clustering to mind)[/li]
[li]the ability to manage all domains/reseller accoutns across all virtualmin servers from a single “control panel” or interface.[/li]
[/ul]

after reading the documentation i feel that some of these features are available but i’m looking for confirmation or “working on it” type of response. even if these aren’t available currently i still like virtualmin and the fact that either i could help implement them or at the least suggest them. i’ve been unable to find that “holy grail” of virtual hosting packages as of yet. i hope virtualmin brings me closer to that…

thanks in advance,

idlemind / tim

2

Hi Tim,

Some thoughts on your questions –

2 seperate nameservers (primary, slave) to be managed (used) by all virtualmin servers and host all virtualmin domains dns services.

Sure! How to accomplish that setup is described here:

http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/id,dns_slave_auto-configuration_quickstart/

Your remaining 3 questions I’m going to try and answer together here –

Mmm, I think the VM2 product may be of interest to you here. It’s a tool Joe and Jamie have been working on for some time now, that provides:

  1. A single interface to manage multiple servers

  2. The ability to provision VPS and EC2 instances

  3. Other cool features :slight_smile:

The manual for VM2 is here:

http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/id,vm2_manual/

I’m not quite sure what the details for that are; it may still be in a private beta, but if you’d like more details, email Joe using sales@virtualmin.com to get some more details on that.

Joe has been swamped over the past few days, and he’s been up until 5 and 6am trying to get the new site, forums, and bug tracker out the door. If you don’t hear anything back from him, just yell here and I’ll try to track him down for you :slight_smile:
-Eric

3

thank you for your quick reply. i’m looking into that other product as i type. i will follow-up with more comments / questions as i go.

thanks,

idlemind / tim

4

First off VM2 looks great!

My new question is if I move to virtualmin + vm2 would I then be able to add "hosts" manually to the vm2 architecture? I currently run a full vmware esx (ha/drs) environment and i would like to be able to build a virtual machine (using templates / scripts) then once the machine is live and provisioned on the network add that to the vm2 architecture to be managed post install. I imagine this will work just fine but looking for some re-assurance / expert guidance on this.

Also if I implement a virtualmin environment what will the migration path be towards fully implementing vm2 when it is released as a finished product? Would it break anything? Would it auto-import the domains configured on stand-alone virtualmin servers? (I understand that the product is still being developed so a “I don’t have a clue” response is completely ok)

Thanks again,

Idlemind / Tim

5
First off VM2 looks great!

Thanks! We think so, too. We’re hoping to launch it in a couple of days. :wink:

The VM2 codename will also be replaced with a brand new, more awesome than donuts, name. So don’t be surprised when “VM2” disappears and becomes something else. The product is the same (only better…a new release will coincide with the launch).

My new question is if I move to virtualmin + vm2 would I then be able to add "hosts" manually to the vm2 architecture?

Generally, yes. If you treat them as existent physical servers, then you can bring them under control of VM2 without trouble.

I currently run a full vmware esx (ha/drs) environment and i would like to be able to build a virtual machine (using templates / scripts) then once the machine is live and provisioned on the network add that to the vm2 architecture to be managed post install.

So, VMWare is not currently one of the supported virtualization types…so the level of control you’ll have is more akin to that of a physical server. Which means less migration capabilities, less start/stop capabilities, and so on (everything that requires VM2 to understand the virtualization layer). But, Virtualmin installations within will be completely controllable, and you’ll still have all of the capabilities that Webmin provides to clustered servers.

My landlord (who happens to organize about half of the cloud computing related conferences in the country; Silicon Valley is a small world) tells me he’ll introduce us to the development partnerships guy at VMWare, so assuming they have some reasonable tools for management via an API, I wouldn’t rule out VMWare support in VM2 in the near future.

Also if I implement a virtualmin environment what will the migration path be towards fully implementing vm2 when it is released as a finished product? Would it break anything? Would it auto-import the domains configured on stand-alone virtualmin servers?

There’s not a lot to break. So, it’d be safe to just plow straight in and do things the best way you know how (preferably using Virtualmin for as much as possible on your virtual systems). And, then bring them under control of VM2, either as physical servers (if we don’t have virtualized management for your preferred virtualization type yet) or as virtual instances (if they happened to be Xen virtual instances).

There’s not a huge amount of state in VM2, so making a server “owned by” VM2 and then undoing that and redoing it as a different type (say after you migrate to a Xen VPS, or we add support for VMWare instances) wouldn’t be too traumatic. Maybe five minutes of fixing up stuff. Some resource usage data might be lost, which would be a bit of a downer, but it’s just historic graphs. Losing a few weeks of that shouldn’t be too painful…especially since you currently don’t have that data…so you can’t possibly end up worse off than you are now. :wink:

We’re hoping to launch the new product a day or two after the new website launch, which I’m shooting for sometime in the morning (like 12-16 hours from now), but my ability to estimate schedules is horrid. Could be as much as 48 hours away.